Invisible

One of the faculty on campus who teaches courses on special education contacted me this summer and told me about a research project he was working on. He wanted to do a study on how a dog guide affected the life of a college student. So I've been recording observations about how my life on campus is differeent this year because of Prada, as opposed to last year, just being the girl with the cane. The last item that I wrote for him I found of particular interest and so I'm posting it here for y'all to read. I am very interested in your comments on this, but here's a disclaimer. If the researcher who I wrote this for is interested in comments on this topic, anything you post here will be reported to him for research and may or may not end up in publications on the topic. So, post at your own risk, and use spellcheck!

"I noticed an interesting phenomenon, one that I almost expected but thought it more a fantasy, round about halfway through the semester. That is, that Prada is more well-known on campus than I am. As numerical proof, Prada has 80 friends on facebook, and I have 74. And this is after I cleaned out her profile of people I didn’t know! Before clean-out, she had upwards of 200, whereas I had about 140. When we walk through campus I can count the number of people that say “hi Anneliese, hi Prada” on one hand, while I need a calculator with a Riemann sun function to tally the number that say “hi Prada, hi Anneliese,” or just “hi Prada!” This has presented to me an interesting psychological phenomenon. I can easily see how Prada is more recognizable than I on campus—after all, she is the only canine here, and there are several tall, slender blondes with glasses—but the fact that some people choose to address the dog before the person, or leave out the person entirely, is a bit curious to me. I thought of one day sitting in the UC for a few hours and counting how many people said hello to the dog first, and how many people forgot to say hello to the person, or just counting the number throughout my usual routes. I have also considered another experiment. There is a student on campus, a friend of mine, that bears a strong resemblance to me. Purely coincidental, but we have often been mistaken for sisters or even twins. By trading glasses and sweatshirts, and letting her walk with Prada, we could easily pass as each other. How many people would notice the change? How many people would recognize me without Prada, how many people wouldn’t look at my friend closely enough to see that she wasn’t me?"

Now, obviously I wouldn't indulge in this last experiment, that would be confusing for poor Prada. If this could be avoided, though, I think the experiment would yield some surprising results. I have yet to write down any speculation on the source of this phenomenon but when I do I will post them here for y'all. Just 'cause I haven't speculated on it yet doesn't mean y'all can't, though! As i said, I am VERY interested in your observations!